While delivering the
inaugural address, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has
said that the information has to be given in a language which is understandable
to everyone, especially the one who applies for it. He said that the
Right to Information has seen a massive increase in acceptance across the globe
in the past twenty years. He further said that Right to Information enables
greater Government accountability, facilitates the citizens’ participation and
lends transparency to Government functioning. It leads to a fundamental change
in relations between the citizens and the Government, he added.

The Vice President said
that sharing of information and creation of a transparent governance structure
accountable to the people of our country are key pillars of democracy. He
further said that transparency and accountability are the two key elements for
the success of democracy. We need to convert Swarajya in to Surajya and the
fruits of the development should reach everyone, he added.

Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu said
that enhanced access to credible information makes our democracy more
progressive, participatory and meaningful. According to Kautilya, good
governance is aimed at fulfilling the welfare of the people; ‘In the happiness
of the king’s subjects lies his happiness, in their welfare, his welfare’, he
added.

The Vice President said
that the Right to Information has seen a massive increase in acceptance across
the globe in the past twenty years. He further said that Right to Information
enables greater Government accountability, facilitates the citizens’
participation and lends transparency to Government functioning. It leads to a
fundamental change in relations between the citizens and the Government, he
added.

Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu said
that early disposal by the Information Commissions will help citizens get their
grievances redressed quickly and encouraged all the Commissions to make a
concerted, sincere effort towards speeding up disposal of cases registered with
them. The Central and State Information Commissions are a bridge between Public
Authorities and the citizens, he added.

Addressing
at the inaugural session, the Union Minister of
State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS
PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr
Jitendra Singh said that the focus of the Government, under the leadership
of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has been on ‘minimum government, maximum
governance’. He emphasized upon the transparency, accountability, in-time
delivery in the Government. He said that the Government has adopted two-pronged
strategy including zero-tolerance towards corruption and providing adequate
protection to those who are performing their task with integrity and high
degree of excellence.

Dr Jitendra
Singh said that for the first time, all vacancies of Information Commissioners
have been filled by the Government. He also ensured all support to the
functioning of the Commission. He said that now RTI online portal has been
launched and RTI can be filed from anywhere in the world. He said that number
of RTI requests online has increased from about 87,830 in the year 2014 to
2,68,920 in the year 2016-17. Dr Jitendra Singh said that the number of
grievances lodged by people has increased 5 fold in the recent years, from 1.5-2
lakh grievances in the year 2014 to 11 lakh grievances now. He said that this
increase is due to the quick response given by the Government to the
grievances. He said that Government has been more responsive, more prompt
and citizen-centric. He also said that the pendency of the cases has also been
reduced by the Commission in the recent years.

The
Minister said that a mechanism should be devised to reduce the pendency. Most
of the information is now available in the public domain, he added. He said
that the Government has also changed the whole focus of ‘Civil Services Day’
being observed every year. He said that now the District Collectors are being
involved in the ‘Civil Services Day’ and this year 599 districts participated
in it. He said that the Government is open to strengthen the legislations. He further
said that the focus of the Government is on: Zero tolerance to corruption and
non-performance, maximum transparency, citizen-centricity and benefitting the
last man in the queue.

Speaking on
the occasion, the Chief Information Commissioner, Shri R. K. Mathur said that the
annual convention is an occasion to do a stocktaking of what we have done in
the previous year and what needs to be done. He said that the Commission had
about 26,000 cases pending as on 31.03.2017 as compared to about 35,000 pending
cases as on April 01, 2016. He said that the Commission has converted to a
paperless system. He also spoke on other initiatives of the CIC i.e.
video-conferencing and facilitation desk among others. He said that more than
3,500 queries have been answered by CIC through facilitation desk. In the year
2016-17, the CIC conducted about 15,000 video conferences, he added. He informed
that this convention followed two seminars held in May and July this year, to
discuss ‘Implementation of the Right to Information Act 2005’ and ‘Land Records
and RTI Act’ respectively.

During the
convention, three subjects namely ‘Suo-motu disclosures’, ‘Record keeping’ and
‘Emerging issues in implementation of RTI Act’ were also discussed.

The
first Session on Suo-motu disclosures was chaired by Shri Bimal Julka,
Central Information Commissioner. The first speaker, Shri Devesh Chaturvedi,
Joint Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training set the parameters for
the discussion on suo-motu disclosures. Shri Lal Duhthlana Ralte, State Chief
Information Commissioner, Mizoram gave a presentation on suo-motu disclosures
in Mizoram under the RTI Act. Shri Nikhil Dey centered his deliberation on proactive
disclosures- ‘Towards Janta Information Systems’. Shri K. Govindarajulu, Joint
Secretary, Institute of Secretariat Training and Management brought out
observations of the Institute during their study of Public Authorities, Suo-motu
disclosures and obligations of Public Authorities under Section 4 of the RTI
Act. Shri Venkatesh Nayak talked about proactive Information Disclosure and
gave instances of good practices and incentivizing compliance. Shri R.K Jain
focused on options for enforcement of Section 4 of the RTI Act. Ms Amrita Johri
highlighted the significance of proactive disclosures in improving social
welfare programmes, elaborating on a study of Fair Price Shops disclosures.

The
next session on Record Keeping was chaired by Shri Sudhir Bhargava,
Central Information Commissioner. This session started with a presentation by
Ms Smita Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and
Public Grievances highlighting Record Retention Schedule- Right to Information
and obligations of Public Authorities. Shri B. Banerjee, Chief Information
Commissioner, West Bengal presented an overview of Record Keeping rules and
practices as well as areas that need to be addressed. Shri Syed Farid Ahmad,
Assistant Director, National Archives of India talked about Public Records Act,
1993 and the RTI Act, 2005. Dr. Surinder Kumar, Senior Technical Director, NIC
highlighted the aspect of digital preservation of electronic records. Shri Shishir
Chand presented a case study on Record Keeping and Right to Information Act,
2005. Dr Kalyan Bhattacharjee focused on Record Keeping at IIT, Delhi- a case
study. Shri Amresh Jha and Shri Aman Vats talked about using Open Government
Data for Integrated Environment Notification System: Meta-Analysis of
Initiatives in India.

The
last session on Emerging issues in the implementation of the RTI Act was
chaired by Shri Amitava Bhattacharya, Central Information Commissioner. Shri
V.S Gadhavi, State Chief Information Commissioner, Gujarat gave his views on
the requirements under the RTI Act and implementation issues. Shri Vinson M
Paul, Kerala State Chief Information Commissioner talked about the experience
of Kerala in implementation of the RTI Act. Shri Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, J&K
State Chief Information Commissioner spoke on emerging issues in the
implementation of RTI Act in the State. Shri Suresh Chowdhary, Rajasthan State
Chief Information Commissioner highlighted the issues in implementation of RTI
Act- Rajasthan experience. Shri Shyam Lal Yadav, Senior editor, The Indian
Express presented a perspective on investigative reporting through RTI. Shri Ram
Nath Jha, Executive Director, Transparency International India discussed the
emerging issues in the implementation of the RTI Act- A structural Review. Shri
Sanjeev Narula, Advocate, Delhi High Court focused on the issues arising in
execution of orders passed by the Commission: A big challenge facing the Right
to Information Act, 2005. Shri Shiv Om Prakash presented a case study of
Website Management & Non-Compliance of CIC decisions in respect of Public
Authority. Shri Kush Kalra, Advocate, High Court and Ms Sunaina Mishra,
Assistant Professor of Law discussed about issues in the implementation of RTI
Act.

The
Secretary, DoPT Shri Ajay Mittal was also present during the Inaugural Session.

The
Information Commissioners, former Chief Information Commissioners, former
Information Commissioners, State Information Commissioners, representatives
from various Ministries and stakeholders of RTI also attended the convention.